Iceland: Northern Lights

We had purposefully traveled to Iceland during the long, dark nights in the hope that we would see the Northern Lights. For the first three days our apps and the web said there was lots of activity, but the skies were so clouded over, we couldn't even see the moon. 

But when we returned from touring the Golden Triangle, the skies were clear and solar activity was predicted for later in the the evening.  

Northern lights

Aurora Borealis

We started checking the sky after dinner, and at one point Dan and Julie returned from checking and said, 'it looks kinda weird and green out there!' Within 20 minutes the green had coalesced into a proper, dancing band - the Northern Lights!! 

Northern lights

Aurora Borealis

For the next 30 minutes or so, the green band swirled and twisted this way and that. All of the photos (save the last three) were taken directly from my handheld iPhone. It was truly spectacular! 

Northern lights

Aurora Borealis

After 30 minutes or so, the green slowly dispersed into the dark night. At 11:00 the lights came back for another 15 minutes or so, but it wasn't as vibrant or dynamic as the first show. 

Northern lights

Bill took loads of photos with his good DSLR on a tripod with long exposure. His photos turned out fantastic! The last three are some of his best. I will say, that although his photos are amazing, the lights were more like the the photos from my iPhone. 

Aurora Borealis - Bill's camera

Northern lights - Bill's camera

Seeing them in person was worth the entire trip. I hope you get to see them for yourself someday. 

A photographer in silhouette - Bill's camera

Iceland, Day Four

On our fourth day in Iceland, my true love gave to me… 

Sorry, I'm typing this post up on Boxing Day and the festive nature of the day carried me away! 

We had a right adventure on our fourth day! We drove all the way from the wee village of our Air B&B to Iceland's Golden Circle. This drive takes several hours to circumnavigate, depending on how long you stay at each stop. We  started well before the sunrise (you know, at 10:15 AM) so we'd have sunlight for our few hours on the Golden Circle. 

Driving tthrough Þingvellir national park

Þingvellir national park

The first stop was Þingvellir national park. This park is really beautiful, located where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates come together. You can spot the rift made from the two plates in the photos above and below. 

Þingvellir national park

Þingvellir national park

There were loads of people, even in cold, late November. The walking trail was well laid out, but fairly icy and slippery. 

Walking through Þingvellir national park

It's COLD - Þingvellir national park

Even Brook wore a coat, hat, and gloves - Þingvellir national park

I opted to stay nearer to the car park - I have already broken my leg once on vacation with these friends, and I didn't want a repeat performance! Before Bill took off with the other walkers, we took a selfie. I look a bit cold AND crazy! 

Crazy eyes at Þingvellir national park

Bill, walking through Þingvellir national park

Those who walked a bit further saw some additional geological sites. More volcanic rock and, in the photo of Cindy below,  an old lava flow.

Þingvellir national park

Photographer Cindy at Þingvellir national park

At the bottom of the icy path, the intrepid walkers found waterfalls! 

Þingvellir national park

With frozen riverbanks.

Þingvellir national park

The sun came out for a few minutes! It didn't warm day, though.

The sun! Þingvellir national park

Baby waterfall at Þingvellir national park

The intrepid ice walkers

When the intrepid ice hikers returned we piled back in the car and drove to Geyser. The location that gave the name to geysers worldwide, this place was chock-a-block full of steaming sulfur-y water just itching to erupt.

Geyser National Park

Whole areas were cordoned off with signs warning visitors that the water is hot enough to burn - stay back! 

Geyser National Park

Geyser National Park

As we approached the main geyser (their current version of Old Faithful), I spotted this baby geyser and took a quick video. Doesn't it look like three witches should be standing around it, stirring, saying 'Boil, boil, toil and trouble'?

Geyser National Park

On our approach to the main geyser, we kept missing the event by mere seconds. But once we were ensconced with the other visitors, I got a pretty good video of the eruption. Boy, did that place smell of rotten eggs!

Thar she blew!

Missed it again

Everyone's waiting…

Finally got it on film! 

By this time we headed to a tourist cafe for a late lunch and to plan our attach for the final stop of the day. Reg got these photos of us all sitting around staring at our phones, but I swear we were all looking at google and google maps not checking social media!! 

Taking a break in Geyser

Plotting our next stop

The last and certainly not least stunning stop of the day, Gullfoss, which loosely translates (if I remember correctly) into golden falls. It it a truly magnificent and massive waterfall. 

Gullfoss

Gullfoss 

It's hard in photos to capture the enormity of the waterfall. Even with people in the picture to give you scale, the falls are far enough away that they don't seem nearly as big as they were when we were there. 

Gullfoss Falls

Selfie skills!

More of Gullfoss

The short video below zooms closer and closer and gives a better understanding of the size and majesty. I also loved all the frozen whitewater along the edges. 

Gullfoss in all its glory

I think the photo below of us is the un-cropped version of last year's New Year's card.  

Selfie skills, behind the scenes

After visiting Gullfoss we drove several hours back to our rental house. But the sights were not done for the day. More on that in our next post! 

Iceland, Day Three

We went to Iceland for two reasons. First, to hopefully see the Northern Lights (more on that in a future post). And second, to have Thanksgiving someplace crazy… Iceland won! 

Thanksgiving preparations

Thanksgiving day turned out to be a really miserable day. Rain, sleet, snow, wind - the works! We purchased most of the ingredients for our Thanksgiving feast the day before, but Bill and I were sent out to collect a few remaining items at the closest grocery store. It was a rather harrowing drive from our remote location to the main road, but then conditions improved a bit (thanks to gritting on the road and snowplows). 

As you can see from the two videos below, Mother Nature really was whipping us into shape! 

Once back at the rental house we prepped the big meal before sitting down for pre-dinner beverages.

Waiting for the turkey to finish

And Facebook posts.

Enjoying a pre-diner drink

And then it was time to eat.

Almost ready to dig in!

Brook is always the best chef to have around!

Yes! Brook is cooking!

Everything was a group effort and tasted delicious.

Time to eat!

In my last post I mentioned how expensive the cup of mushroom soup was. Brook somehow found a frozen turkey at the local grocery store. He thought the tag said 17 (Icelandic Kroner) for the bird, but it turned out that was 17 per kilogram and we bought a big bird. Needless to say, our grocery bill was higher than anticipated! Oh, well, it was Thanksgiving after all!

shredding the leftovers

After dinner we watched movies, played games, and let the tryptophan make us super-duper lazy.

Iceland, Day Two

We arrived at our rental home after dark on the first day, so we really weren't able to see much. Once the sun rose the next morning (around 10:00AM!) we were happily surprised to find ourselves secluded, far away from the maddening crowd.  

Our Air B&B

Our house was located on the west side of the island, about two hours drive north from Reykjavik near a town called Bifrost.

View from our Air B&B

View from our Air B&B

We chatted with a couple at one point while we were out and about, farther north, that first full day. They asked where we were staying and I explained that our rental was near Bifrost, and I pronounced it buy-frost. That seems correct, right?

Well, the folks could not figure out where we were staying and kept asking us to repeat the name of the village. 'Buy-frost,' I kept explaining. Finally, a lightbulb goes off in the woman's eyes and she says, 'Oh! You mean Bee-frooost (with a rolled R-sound).'

Yes, yes, I mean Bee-frooost. Of course, I mean Bee-froost!  

View from our Air B&B

View from our Air B&B

We drove around to see some of the Northwestern sights on day two (first full day). We only had about five hours of daylight each day, so we had to make the most of them!

Views from the road

Views from the road - a defunct volcano

We stopped to see an extinct volcano. There was a walking trail, but since the weather was so cold and the hiking conditions fairly dire, we simply pulled our car over, got a good look and called it a day. 

Basalt stacks - as seen from afar

Our next stop was to locate the geological formation of basalt stacks. We found them and were able to drive fairly close to them.

Basalt stacks - as seen closer

Cindy, capturing the moment

We parked on the road (yes, this was a fairly main road in Northwestern Iceland!) and stopped for some photographs. 

Bill, capturing the moment

And cheesy, frozen smiles! 

Ready for a short hike? 

Many of us hiked even closer.

Basalt stacks

While others stayed back by the cars.

Selfie skills! 

Hikers making their way to the basalt stacks

Apparently, those who hiked up to the stacks partook in a wee bit of snow ball fighting.

Dan standing against the basalt stacks

The whole gang - selfie skills!!

Unfortunately, for the next several hours, there were no signs of civilization. This is what we saw:

As seen from the road

As seen from the road

Stone monument of some sort, as seen from the road

There were some road signs… that weren't too helpful as you drove past at 50MPG...

easy-peasy

Thankfully we finally, finally (!) found a small cafe that was open. To give you an idea of how expensive food is in Iceland, my small bowl of mushroom soup cost the equivalent of $18. Yikes!

Small church

The cafe was in a small village with a beautiful, tiny church in the field behind the cafe.

Glacier to the left of small church

We had about a two-hour drive to get back to our rental home and it was soon going to get dark. We were trying to make our way to a famous glacier that was supposedly nearby. I asked the host managing the cafe how much farther it was until we could see the glacier as we would have to be turning back soon.

He was confused and asked, 'Glacier? You want to see the glacier?'

We replied yes, we were hoping to see the glacier. At which point the manager pointed to the hill disappearing into the cloud cover beside the church and said, 'Well, if you could see it, you could see it!'

D'oh! There would be no glacier viewing on that day...

Ocean near small church and glacier

But we saw coast. We all thought the volcanic rock dusted in snow looked like fresh, homemade brownies. Perhaps we were still hungry from our meager yet expensive cafe lunches. 

Bottom of glacier

Ocean with glacier to the left

Freezing photographers

We took loads of photos before packing back into our cars for the long drive back to the rental.

Another view of the ocean

Dan (and Bill) were steady, confident drivers throughout the week of inclement weather!

Dan, our fearless driver!

Back at the rental we strategized for our next day's Thanksgiving feast! 

Warming up after a long day of sightseeing